The Chicago Bears have played one regular season game, but can already say goodbye to the concept of a healthier 2017.
If you count the players placed on injured reserve and later waived, cut, or released to the group currently on IR, it adds up to 12 – a hefty number for a team already working with a razor thin margin for error. Wide receiver Kevin White and linebacker Jerrell Freeman are the latest to join the walking wounded, and both are big blows to their respective sides of the ball.
White was all lined up to have a breakout season if he could have stayed healthy. Picked seventh overall in the 2015 NFL Draft, White made it through the preseason with a clean bill of health and was projected to be a top target of new quarterback Mike Glennon. Instead, he played just 47 snaps before leaving the game with a shoulder injury that landed him on IR for the third straight season.
Freeman has been one of the NFL’s best inside linebackers in each of the last two seasons, earning an elite grade from Pro Football Focus in 2015 and 2016. The Bears received a double-whammy of bad injury news on Sunday when Freeman was diagnosed with a pectoral injury and a self-reported concussion. He played more than 800 snaps and nearly 75 percent of the team’s defensive snaps last season, and will be missed as a defender who is stout against the run and solid against the pass.
Last year, the Bears had 21 players finish the season on injured reserve. You can check out the laundry list of names here.
As for those who have made it so far, here goes nothing: